Janine’s product could be on lips of Hollywood stars

LIP balm produced and packaged in a Currimundi home could soon be on the lips of some of Hollywood's biggest stars.

Janine Hall was gob-smacked when she received a call to confirm her certified organic lip balm kits were selected to appear in gift baskets given to celebrities staying at the exclusive Four Seasons Beverly Hills while attending the Academy Awards.

Unlike the exorbitant goodie bags given to nominees who don't take home the golden statue, the hotel's gift bags only contain 12 carefully selected products and are available only to those lucky enough to secure a suite at the sought-after accommodation house.

Ms Hall pitched the kit, which contains a lip balm and mask, to a company who had advertised online, not knowing where her products would end up.

"I'm pretty stoked with it," she said.

"I had no idea where to go from there, this was a first for me."

Hollywood Baskets requested 50 kits, which Ms Hall hand-made in her home over Christmas.

The kits, which required three days of ingredient infusion and five hours to mix together, package and label, were sent to California earlier this month.

Every detail of the packages, right down to the calico bags, was hand-made by Ms Hall.

She said with an influx of anti-aging products on the market, the kits had captured the attention of the promotions company as it was a multi-purpose product.

"It's a beautiful gloss which stays on your lips and because it is made with Manuka honey, jojoba and pure vanilla bean it helps with cracked lips and cold sores with results within 24 hours of using it," she said.

"It solves the problem of having unhealthy scaly lips, helps 'lip bleed' when you apply lipstick and contains no nasty chemicals or fragrances.

"When you are off to one of those awards ceremonies or other special occasions, your lips can say so much about you and your health."

The former massage and beauty therapist founded Soul Spa Alchemy after she began suffering from chemical poisoning, which made her "allergic to everything" 15 years ago.

Ms Hall's motto since has been to create products that are gentle on the skin and had healing properties that boosted natural beauty from the inside out.

Securing a coveted product placement in the gift bags could be very lucrative for the small business if one of the celebrities were to Tweet or give a shout out to the product on other social media.

Ms Hall said it was her dream for her product to reach talk show queens Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres or respected actresses Meryl Streep and Jamie Lee Curtis.

"I'd be lying if I said I didn't want (the products) in their hands," she said.

"When you look at all four of these women, they are just beautiful people who like to do things naturally.

"I'd be honoured for anyone to say thank you."

Ms Hall said she was already in discussions to kick her business into high gear.

Relying on sales through her online store, Ms Hall said she was in talks with a manufacturing company and was hoping to secure not only a national distributor, but also Sunshine Coast boutiques that would like to stock her products.

"For years I was giving the lip balm away at networking events for 15 years and even though I've loved it, I didn't pay much attention to it until I created the kit," she said.

"I created the lip balm kit when at a family barbecue. The women where discussing their love of lip balms and what they liked and didn't like about them.

"From listening to them chat, I had an idea that I thought could help and now the product is off to Hollywood."